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Police Probe Hanging Death Of Tasia Fortune Outside Abandoned Jackson House

Jackson police found a body hanging in the backyard of an abandoned house on August 3 and later identified the victim as 29-year-old Tasia Fortune.[1]

The Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office is conducting an autopsy to determine Fortune's cause and manner of death.[1] Police have not identified any suspects, though officers arrested a man who admitted arguing with Fortune on an unrelated firearm charge.[1] Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes wrote to U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger asking for federal assistance and called Fortune a murder victim.[1]

State authorities earlier ruled the recent hanging deaths of Trey Reed and Cory Zukatis in Mississippi suicides, a development officials say frames but does not settle the inquiry into Fortune's death.[1] Investigators have said little publicly as they await the medical examiner's results.[1]

  1. PBS News
Public Safety DEI and Race Mississippi Law Enforcement
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📌 Key Facts

  • On August 3, 2026, Jackson police found a body hanging in the backyard of an abandoned house and later identified the victim as 29-year-old Tasia Fortune.
  • The Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting an autopsy to determine Fortune’s cause and manner of death.
  • Police have not identified any suspects; a man who admitted arguing with Fortune was arrested on an unrelated firearm charge.
  • Fortune’s death follows recent hanging deaths of Trey Reed and Cory Zukatis in Mississippi that state authorities determined were suicides.
  • Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes asked U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger in writing to assist and referred to Fortune as a murder victim.

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August 10, 2026
11:46 PM
What we know about the death of Tasia Fortune in Mississippi
PBS News by Terry Tang, Associated Press